What I learned last week. #3

I learned that doing a weekend sale and not promoting the heck out of it is basically like not having a sale at all.

I learned that StumbleUpon will get you a ton of hits...Which does not translate into sales necessarily but hits none the less.

I learned that sometimes it is no so easy to stay confident...

80s Punk Hair Fascinator or Brooch

80s Punk Hair Fascinator or Brooch - Rosette - Pink and Black - FREE SHIPPING - Cruelty Free by 10eisha on Etsy

Shared via AddThis

BOGO!

~ * Buy One Get One Half Off!* ~

This weekend only. Buy one hair accessory and get a second one of equal or lesser value half off! Difference will be promptly refunded through paypal after payment.

10eisha.etsy.com

BOGO Sales in my shop and all over Etsy! Check out this Storque gift guide for more participating shops!

3 Tools You Should Be Using...and Why

• Craftweasel : Tag Finder - The trick with this tool is to know what your best tags are in the first place. If you just type in "hair clip" you are going to get a million tags that may or may not have anything to do with your item. But if you type in something like "goth fascinator" you are going to get color tags, description tags and other genre tags that you may not even have thought of otherwise. And by the way - the best way to use this tool is to type in your words - hit "find tags"- then "complete table of related tags" then "average views per day".

• Statsy : Featurator - e-mail every time you get featured on Etsy's front page. It's good to have something like this because being featured on the front page these days usually lasts about 4 minutes.

• Craftoplolis : Treasure Hunt & Gift Guide - All you have to do is type your shop name in and you can see if you are in any treasury's or gift guides. Easy peesy.

Working With Feathers 101

Craft Picture Of The Day

What does it all mean!!!!???

Today I was on the front page for what seemed like just a few seconds. I got over 500 views from it and 30 new shop hearts. The item featured received 25 new hearts.

But I didn't sell one thing as a result...

What does it all mean!!!!??? This etsy stuff is hard....that's what it means. Featured, front pages, ads, free publicity, paid publicity. I'm really starting to thing that none of it matters. Its sort of just being in the right place at the right time and having the right viewer.

I think the only thing that we can do as sellers is just try to work on our craft more than our marketing. If you have an amazing product...word will get out eventually, right?

So far the things that work for me are: Facebook and $10 ads on Offbeat Bride. My two biggest hit makers are google and direct hits on etsy which cost me nothing.

What are your top 4 traffic sources?

What I learned last week. #2

Well, I learned that good things normally come in bursts. For example after not being in a treasury for a few weeks I was, in one day, in two treasury's and a gift guide AND I got my acceptance letter for a huge juried show (Holiday Hit List) in December.

Actually, come to this of it, that good day, which was Friday sort of steamrolled into the weekend and i managed to make a box full of awesome new fascinators, found time to keep up with listing new items, my weekend sale was successful...and i even cleaned my house and got chores done.

Amazing!

Ok so back to what I learned.

Twitter, on a daily basis does not bring me much traffic. For example, when looking at a single day on Google Analytics it usually ranks #20 or so. However, overall when looking at a few months, it makes it to #4. So I guess Ill keep doing it.

I've also learned to keep up with that sort of thing. Meaning you should just be looking at your hits but really thinking about where your traffic is coming from so that you can stop wasting time with avenues that are only bringing in 1 hit a day or whatever.

Looking ahead I'm thinking about doing a tutorial for a craft but I am trying to decide whether i want to do a video or picture tutorial. I'm thinking videos are usually more interesting.

Hope you all had a fantastic weekend!
Teneisha

By the way everyone- this is the last day of my sale! 20% off with the code WD21. Enter it in the message to seller in Etsy or PayPal and I will refund 20% of your order.

Have a fantastic Sunday!

fantastic

wow, I can not wait to take pictures of the hair peices I made today! They might be the coolest yet. woot!

Thank you to anyone who has passed on my sale information. I have gotten 8 sales out of it! Granted they are mostly small ones, but that's ok!

Have a fantastic Saturday night!
Teneisha

Etsy Weekend Deal Gift Guide

wooohoooo! I'm in a gift guide! Woot woot woot!

Sale Sale Sale

http://10eisha.etsy.com ... sale code - WD21
8/21 - 8/23

Heads up on a sale THIS WEEKEND!

Summer Weekend Sale!
10eisha.etsy.com

From 8/21 to 8/23 (this weekend) I will be offering 20%-off all hair accessories in my shop, including Bridal!

Enter code "WD21" in the message to seller during checkout, and the discount will be promptly refunded through Paypal.

And as always, all small hair-fascinators come with FREE worldwide shipping!

http://10eisha.etsy.com

I'll just keep doing what works - creating and listing

So...this craft show, which was a really cool set up, was still not profitable for me.

Maybe craft shows are not my key to success. That's ok. I'll keep all my stuff for the big Holiday Hit List show in December and then maybe ill just sell it all as one big package - "perfect set up for craft shows, table, chair, canopy and lights"

For now I guess I'll just keep doing what works - creating and listing.

Oh and by the way - I have been going nuts with twitter lately. I have something like 325 followers so far and Ive been twittering multiple times a day. Well guess what...I haven't gotten any hits from twitter! What the? The funny part is that when i was using my personal twitter account for marketing i had way more hits from it.

Live and learn, Live and learn. jeez!

This picture makes everyone crack up.
Sorry for the quality, it was taken with a camera phone.

HILLCREST ART NIGHTS - Tonight!

Free event in Hillcrest tonight!
Over 40 local crafts people and artists (including me!) set up from 6pm-10pm on University Ave between 10th and Herbert.
Come and check out local talent and get an early start on Christmas gifts or just network!

See you there!

What I learned last week.

I'd like to start doing a post every Monday called "What I learned last week" which will be filled with my "learning form mistakes" tips, frustrations and so on.

So, what did I learn last week?

Craft Shows

• You should try to find out what the average age is for a certain show because it may not mesh well with your target age group. The craft show that I was in on Sunday had a much older crowd than my intended age group which meant that I only sold 3 things and traded 1.
  
• Sometimes networking is more valuable than sales. Even though I didn't make a lot of sales i met a few people who want me in their future shows.
  
• Always pack a lunch. Pretty self explanatory!

Etsy

• The most important thing, hand down, for an accessories person like me....listing new items. Not renewing, not social networking, not any of that. Just listing new items every day as often as possible. When i list, I make money, when i just renew, I don't make jack!
• When you purchase a showcase spot it is not grabbing items from your featured starred list. There is a whole other list which populates automatically with the last 10 items that you listed or renewed. Unless you go in an manually change the purchased showcase list of items you might be showcasing a whole bunch of old renews.

Things I hope to learn (not through mistakes) this week

• If people price their items differently between their online shops and their craft shows.
• If Ebay is a good place to sell handmade items
• If a destash shop will bring me sales.

What did YOU learn this week?

A few links for the day!

An awesome feather treasury

A fantastic handmade blog

And a cool craft show that I am in this weekend!

Craft Show Preperations

So...I have a craft show on Sunday. And then another on Wednesday and another at the end of the month. This week I have been frantically trying to finalize my plans for canopy/table/chair/lighting and so on. The reason its been sort of frantic is for a few reasons. The first show is indoor and i only need a table and chair. However the others are at night outside and during the day outside. So If I'm going to buy a canopy deal I better get the right size folding table now instead of having to buy another one down the road.

So i searched and searched for canopy's and did some measurements and holy cow a 10x10 canopy is WAY too big for me. I am a small person selling small items. :D

Eventually I settled on a 60x60 inch canopy (5x5 feet) and a 47 inch long table. I also went and bought a money box, receipt pads, table cloths and a mini calculator.

What makes me very happy is that now that I have all this stuff...I wont need to get it again! For the rest of the summer, Fall and Winter I can use this same stuff and all I have to worry about is making more fascinators! yahoo!

Anyone else preparing for craft shows for the first time?

Do you have a free gift with your purchases?

There has been a lot of talk lately about including a free gift to your customers with your shipments. I myself have gotten a few great free gifts with orders and even when they are simple or cheap to make they are still a fun surprise.

So I decided to also jump on the free gift bandwagon and thought...what can i do with the leftovers of my craft? I have scraps of tulle & faux flowers which I finally decided would make fun little pins or brooches. All I had to get was some pin backings from the craft store and I was ready.

I have only given away 2 or 3 and have not heard any feedback about them yet....But I think they are fun!

Do you have a free gift with your purchases?

My top 5 tips to taking a good product picture

I am no expert...however I am often told that I take pretty good pictures for my etsy listings. Here are a few tips I have picked up along the way. (click the pictures to see a more detailed size)

1. Learn about the macro settings on your camera. If you do not have your user manual anymore you can most likely find information online. Just look up your model number and "macro settings".

Notice how the camera is trying to focus on everything in the "without"
pictures. In the "with" picture only what you want to showcase is in
focus the rest is nice and blurred. It may seem like a small difference...
but It really does make a nice photograph that is easier to look at.

2. Use as much natural light as possible. Open every window shade in the house. Or better yet, go outside!

3. Buy a large sheet of white paper. Using good lighting and white paper will give you a lit from all angles look. Take the sheet of paper and tape it to a wall or object so that the paper acts as the background and the flooring for your product with a nice curve.

You do not need a piece of paper this large, we just had this
around the house. Also, Set yours up on a table and wall to
save your back!

4. Use angles to your advantage. Extreme angle shots are a trick that even professional product photographers use. Think about shaving razor ads or cell phones, cars, even food products. Angle shots are a way to make your product look cool and larger than life. It's also a way to make something simple look artsy and a fantastic way to capture details.

5. Get to know a photo editing program. It doesn't need to cost $500 but you should find something that has the basics like contrast, cropping, and color/white balance.

This is a huge difference with just one command - Auto Levels. In
Photoshop thats - shift+command+L. Seriously thats all I did!

A few notes:
I recently started using a mannequin which has completely altered the way I photograph and edit my products. Be ready to try different things each step of the way. For example if you make white products, try shooting on a shiny black surface instead. Also, to safe yourself time and headache, make sure everything is clean. Your surface and your product should be dust free, hot glue stringy free and so on That stuff DOES show up when you use your macro settings.

I hope this helps!

Teneisha a.k.a. 10eisha

AH - HA !

After much agonizing I finally figured out how to find small shows that are looking for small vendors....CraigsList....doy, why didn't i think of that!?

Hello Hello!

Welcome to my new blog! I just set this up yesterday, so please excuse the lack of posts and so on.

If you would like to see something with a bit more content check out my inspiration blog: http://dumpsterninjas.blogspot.com/

I will start posting here very soon! Thanks for looking!

Teneisha a.k.a 10eisha